1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bridge apparatus and a bridge method, and relates in particular to a bridge apparatus and a bridge method for providing QoS (Quality of Service) between a device driver and a bridge.
2. Description of the Related Prior Art
A conventional, buffer employing bridge apparatus, for deployment between various network types, is disclosed in JP-A-5-22293, for example. According to the technique described in JP-A-5-22293, when a frame from a network A is transmitted to a reception buffer for a communication port A, a bridge processor reads the header in the frame received from the reception buffer, and performs a bridging process. Then, the bridge processor transmits the frame to the transmission buffer of a communication port B, and the communication port B transmits, to a network B, the frame in the transmission buffer.
When, as described in JP-A-5-22293, a 100 Mbps LAN conforming to IEEE 802.3 is employed for a network A and a wireless LAN conforming to IEEE 802.11 is employed for a network B, the communication capability of the network A is higher by at least one digit than is that of the network B. Therefore, since in JP-A-5-22293 no consideration is given to frame priorities, an inherent problem encountered is in that the transmission, from the network A to the network B, of a frame having a high priority is delayed as long as is the transmission of a frame having a low priority.